(Apostolic Letter condemning the slave trade, written by Pope Gregory XVI and read
during the 4th Provincial Council of Baltimore, December 3, 1839.)

Placed at the
summit of the Apostolic power and, although lacking in merits, holding the place of Jesus
Christ, the Son of God, Who, being made Man through utmost Charity, deigned to die for the
Redemption of the World, We have judged that it belonged to Our pastoral solicitude to
exert Ourselves to turn away the Faithful from the inhuman slave trade in Negroes and all
other men. Assuredly, since there was spread abroad, first of all amongst the Christians,
the light of the Gospel, these miserable people, who in such great numbers, and chiefly
through the effects of wars, fell into very cruel slavery, experienced an alleviation of
their lot. Inspired in fact by the Divine Spirit, the Apostles, it is true, exhorted the
slaves themselves to obey their masters, according to the flesh, as though obeying Christ,
and sincerely to accomplish the Will of God; but they ordered the masters to act well
towards slaves, to give them what was just and equitable, and to abstain from menaces,
knowing that the common Master both of themselves and of the slaves is in Heaven, and that
with Him there is no distinction of persons.

But as the law of the Gospel universally and earnestly enjoined a sincere charity
towards all, and considering that Our Lord Jesus Christ had declared that He considered as
done or refused to Himself everything kind and merciful done or refused to the small and
needy, it naturally follows, not only that Christians should regard as their brothers
their slaves and, above all, their Christian slaves, but that they should be more inclined
to set free those who merited it; which it was the custom to do chiefly upon the occasion
of the Easter Feast as Gregory of Nyssa tells us. There were not lacking Christians, who,
moved by an ardent charity 'cast themselves into bondage in order to redeem others,' many
instances of which our predecessor, Clement I, of very holy memory, declares to have come
to his knowledge. In the process of time, the fog of pagan superstition being more
completely dissipated and the manners of barbarous people having been softened, thanks to
Faith operating by Charity, it at last comes about that, since several centuries, there
are no more slaves in the greater number of Christian nations. ButWe say with
profound sorrowthere were to be found afterwards among the Faithful men who,
shamefully blinded by the desire of sordid gain, in lonely and distant countries, did not
hesitate to reduce to slavery Indians, Negroes and other wretched peoples, or else, by
instituting or developing the trade in those who had been made slaves by others, to favour
their unworthy practice. Certainly many Roman Pontiffs of glorious memory, Our
Predecessors, did not fail, according to the duties of their charge, to blame severely
this way of acting as dangerous for the spiritual welfare of those engaged in the traffic
and a shame to the Christian name; they foresaw that as a result of this, the infidel
peoples would be more and more strengthened in their hatred of the true Religion.

It is at these practices that are aimed the Letter Apostolic of Paul III, given on May
29, 1537, under the seal of the Fisherman, and addressed to the Cardinal Archbishop of
Toledo, and afterwards another Letter, more detailed, addressed by Urban VIII on April 22,
1639 to the Collector Jurium of the Apostolic Chamber of Portugal. In the latter are
severely and particularly condemned those who should dare 'to reduce to slavery the
Indians of the Eastern and Southern Indies,' to sell them, buy them, exchange them or give
them, separate them from their wives and children, despoil them of their goods and
properties, conduct or transport them into other regions, or deprive them of liberty in
any way whatsoever, retain them in servitude, or lend counsel, succour, favour and
co-operation to those so acting, under no matter what pretext or excuse, or who proclaim
and teach that this way of acting is allowable and co-operate in any manner whatever in
the practices indicated.

Benedict XIV confirmed and renewed the penalties of the Popes above mentioned in a new
Apostolic Letter addressed on December 20, 1741, to the Bishops of Brazil and some other
regions, in which he stimulated, to the same end, the solicitude of the Governors
themselves. Another of Our Predecessors, anterior to Benedict XIV, Pius II, as during his
life the power of the Portuguese was extending itself over New Guinea, sent on October 7,
1462, to a Bishop who was leaving for that country, a Letter in which he not only gives
the Bishop himself the means of exercising there the sacred ministry with more fruit, but
on the same occasion, addresses grave warnings with regard to Christians who should reduce
neophytes to slavery.

In our time Pius VII, moved by the same religious and charitable spirit as his
Predecessors, intervened zealously with those in possession of power to secure that the
slave trade should at least cease amongst the Christians. The penalties imposed and the
care given by Our Predecessors contributed in no small measure, with the help of God, to
protect the Indians and the other people mentioned against the cruelty of the invaders or
the cupidity of Christian merchants, without however carrying success to such a point that
the Holy See could rejoice over the complete success of its efforts in this direction; for
the slave trade, although it has diminished in more than one district, is still practiced
by numerous Christians. This is why, desiring to remove such a shame from all the
Christian nations, having fully reflected over the whole question and having taken the
advice of many of Our Venerable Brothers the Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church, and
walking in the footsteps of Our Predecessors, We warn and adjure earnestly in the Lord
faithful Christians of every condition that no one in the future dare to vex anyone,
despoil him of his possessions, reduce to servitude, or lend aid and favour to those who
give themselves up to these practices, or exercise that inhuman traffic by which the
Blacks, as if they were not men but rather animals, having been brought into servitude, in
no matter what way, are, without any distinction, in contempt of the rights of justice and
humanity, bought, sold, and devoted sometimes to the hardest labour. Further, in the hope
of gain, propositions of purchase being made to the first owners of the Blacks,
dissensions and almost perpetual conflicts are aroused in these regions.

We reprove, then, by virtue of Our Apostolic Authority, all the practices
above-mentioned as absolutely unworthy of the Christian name. By the same Authority We
prohibit and strictly forbid any Ecclesiastic or lay person from presuming to defend as
permissible this traffic in Blacks under no matter what pretext or excuse, or from
publishing or teaching in any manner whatsoever, in public or privately, opinions contrary
to what We have set forth in this Apostolic Letter.